The present invention relates to an automated check cashing system and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for implementing an automated check cashing system in which a computer can approve and cash checks in specific situations for an identified customer presenting pre-qualified checks as specified in the customer's data file.
Operator assisted check cashing or financial exchange business are all around. Basically they take up-front risks by giving cash, call it a loan, to a customer, on a presented check or a negotiable instrument. Each system anticipates that enough legwork has been done so that cashed checks will not come back from banks for non-sufficient funds or account closed or stop payment or forgery or been copied or been laser printed or lost and found or stolen. There are different types of checks, different types of customers, and different backgrounds for each situation that opens a wide array of possibilities before cashing such instruments and as such creates a multitude of procedures for all encountered situations. Approval of cashing of a presented instrument is based upon decisions made from information available by examining, searching, and verifying gathered data in accordance with laid procedures for a given situation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,592,377; 4,580,040; and 4,617,457 disclose check cashing systems, each of which involves human intervention in searching for needed information, verifying and authorizing typical information, examining all gathered information, using judgement on them, and finally approving or disapproving a given type of check for its cashing. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,249,163; 4,810,866; and Re. 33,688 describe systems which involve cash withdrawal from a customer's own account when there are sufficient funds available to cover the cashing of a presented check.
It would be beneficial to have a check cashing system, not interfaced with a customer's bank account, and that does not require human intervention to cash a check.